After two and a half years sitting on the sideline, Mike Swick finally got to see some action again.

And he liked it so much, he wants to get right back in there. Well, after another quick knee surgery, that is.

Swick (15-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) finally returned at UFC on FOX 4 on Saturday and after a bit of a dicey first round, he knocked out DaMarques Johnson in the second.

Swick’s long layoff was due to both an esophageal issue as well as a knee surgery. On Monday, he told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) he hopes to have yet another knee surgery this week – but just a minor scoping of some scar tissue so he can hopefully fight again in 2012.

On Saturday, despite a few rough spots in the opening frame that had Johnson controlling the action on the ground, Swick said he felt just fine in his return.

“I felt good and healthy and hungry,” Swick said. “I was trying to get that knockout from the start. To his credit, he can take a punch. The first two punches I landed were solid. He just kept coming. He’s a tough dude.”

But while he was on the ground with Johnson mounted, Swick said he had to have a conversation with himself about getting out of the bad position – which paid off in the second round with his knockout.

“I was going for a triangle, and I just got real complacent,” Swick said of that sketchy moment on the ground with Johnson. “Finally, it just clicked: ‘What are you doing? Get up and get out of here – you’re losing the fight.'”

In the second, he was glad for that conversation. As Johnson headed toward the canvas after Swick blocked a kick, Swick went with him and leveled him with three huge right hands – right hands that had him thinking about “Knockout of the Night,” which he would go on to get a couple hours later.

“I was thinking about it a little bit, but I was just so happy to get the win,” Swick said. “I felt really good. I wasn’t as concerned about (the bonus). You always want to get it, but I was just happy to have the knockout. I was happy about the win, the performance and being back in the octagon fighting.”

And now that he’s there, and is anxious to get back in there again after the upcoming minor knee scope, he can start to focus on the next biggest win of his career – since he said Saturday’s victory, after such a long layoff, was the biggest so far.

“It was the biggest win of my career, considering all the stuff I’ve been through,” Swick said. “I thought my career was over, or a big possibility. I decided to push forward and give it everything I had. It was a long road, but I did it. And there were critics out there, so it was a lot of stress. I was just hoping I’d step up to the game and fight a good fight and make it exciting.”

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

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